Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR

[Phil3]

I rather like what I hear about the Howa 1500 action and am considering using one to build a rifle. But, www.legacysports is the only place that seems to sell them and only with a barrel. I would like to use the action and shoot 6mmBR. I don't know anything about barrel fitment to the Howa, who makes such a barrel, etc.? Is the process to buy a bare barrel and ship action and barrel to gunsmith for fitment? I know little about bolt actions, so forgive the naive questions.

- Phil

 

[darrenk75b]

Re: Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR

Your smith will need to remove the factory barrel. Legacy is the importer. Go to gunbroker and see that there are a number f retailers selling the barreled action. You'll need one with a .473" (.308 based family) bolt face.

Buy a 6mm barrel from any reputable manufacturer with the contour and twist that you want (I would recommend a 1:8 twist) to have it fit to the action.

 

[USN-PO2]

Re: Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR


Have a Howa 1500 in .308 with the Hogue overmold and the hevy barrel. Shoots better than I do, finding a one piece scope mount has been a pain in the butt... everyones out of stock.

My next bolt gun will be another M1500, can't beat the price or quality. BTW, the same company makes the Weatherby Vanguard series

 

[Phil3]

Re: Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR

I have some concerns over changing the barrel on the Howa. It is apparently a gunsmith only affair that can be quite difficult. - Phil

 

[darrenk75b]

Re: Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR

Aside from Savages, a barrel swap on ANY action is a gunsmith-only affair.

 

[GSRswapandslow]

Re: Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR

if you want 6mmbr....but a savage.

you can get the LRPV chambered in 6mmbr norma...in a 1:8 twist....one hole accurate from the get go and no need to swap barrels. and with the floating bolt face, no real need to do any accurizing either...just an unbeatable bargin

 

[MWDG3]

Re: Howa 1500 Action w/o Barrel & 6mmBR

http://www.6mmbr.com/10twistbarrels.html

Howa 243 heavy barreled actions are 10 twist. Do a little research and you may want to use their hammer forged barrel for practice. There's plenty of meat to hack off the sloppy factory threads and have your gunsmith rethread and recrown it.

New actions from Howa include at least a barrel. Threads are metric, no big thing for a competitent gunsmith. Barrels are hogged on rediculously tight and in my limited experience require a 4 bolt barrelvise with Brownells Model 70/Weatherby action wrench. Once a Howa is rebarreled you don't have to use 150ft/lbs of torque. Mine is going to be a switchbarrel, one of the benefits of it's integral lug.

Mark Gordon at www.shortactioncustoms.com has my 308 for truing and other upgrades. He's busy but will be glad to help you, he knows Howas.